Prince of Wales announces Earthshot Prize 2026 finalists

The Prince of Wales has announced the Earthshot Prize 2026 finalists.

The fifteen finalists are:

1: Protect and Restore Nature Finalists 
• Yellowstone to Yukon – leading one of the largest conservation collaborations in history, reconnecting a vast mountain landscape across Canada and the US so wildlife can once again move freely as it did for millennia.
• Indigenous Desert Alliance – supporting desert mob – Indigenous communities and families with deep cultural ties to Australia’s Desert Country – and 70 Indigenous ranger teams to manage the largest Indigenous-led conservation corridor in the world.
• Bhutan – the Himalayan kingdom demonstrating how a small nation’s forests can safeguard water security across an entire region, embedding environmental protection into its constitution, public policy and national identity.

2: Fix our Climate
• Mahila Housing Trust – the Indian grassroots organisation driving a women-led heat resilience model, introducing affordable heat-reflecting roofs, community-led Heat Action Plans, and climate risk insurance for women on low incomes.
• Pula – combining insurance and technology to help governments and agricultural partners protect smallholder farmers from the financial shock of droughts, floods and other climate events.
• Ørsted – the Danish renewable energy company behind some of the world’s largest offshore wind projects, working to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels by scaling clean energy globally.

3: Build a Waste-Free World
• PFAS-Free France – the policy and civil-society campaign that helped secure – and is now working to implement – France’s 2025 law to phase out uses of PFAS “forever chemicals” in everyday products.
• Korea Zero Waste Movement Network – the movement that helped turn South Korea’s growing food waste crisis into a national system that keeps most food waste out of landfill sites.
• Mother Earth Foundation – pioneering community-run Zero Waste Solutions, helping Philippine cities and island communities prevent plastic and organic waste from reaching landfills, waterways and the ocean.

4: Revive our Oceans
• ZEMBA – the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance – solving one of the biggest problems in global decarbonisation, bringing global cargo owners together to make binding commitments to zero-emission shipping.
• Niue Ocean Wide Trust – protecting globally crucial ocean territory through developing Ocean Conservation Commitments (OCCs) – long-term Indigenous-led financing models to address ocean and climate funding challenges.
• The city of Barcelona – turning one of Europe’s most intensively used urban coastlines into a global blueprint for climate adaptation, including coastal resilience, nature-based solutions, public space and water management.

5: Clean our Air
• AirQo – the project closing Africa’s air quality data gap with low-cost monitors, open data platforms and artificial intelligence designed to track pollution levels across African cities.
• Satellites on Fire – an Argentinian AI-powered wildfire detection and alert platform, spotting and tracking wildfires across 21 countries – and faster than NASA.
• Mahindra Last Mile Mobility – one of India’s biggest three-wheeler manufacturers, which has transformed its supply chain, and now sells more electric three-wheelers than anyone else in the country.

Each finalist is in the running for £1 million across the five categories. The 2026 Winners will be announced at the sixth Earthshot Prize Awards Night, in Mumbai, India

Prince William, Founder and President of The Earthshot Prize, said, “Every year, our Finalists give me renewed optimism. They show us that, even as the environmental challenges remain urgent, extraordinary people around the world are already proving that progress is possible. Seeing solutions work gives us all confidence to act. When they succeed, they inspire others and accelerate change. I’m proud to welcome these 15 Finalists to the Earthshot Prize community and look forward to celebrating their stories in Mumbai this November.”

Jason Knauf, CEO of The Earthshot Prize, said, “This year’s Finalists show that environmental leadership is coming from every corner of the globe, with a huge number of groundbreaking solutions being driven from the Global South. Each Finalist is responding to a different pressing environmental issue, but all share the potential to create change far beyond their immediate impact. By backing solutions that can contribute to a positive tipping point, where progress begins to accelerate and spread, The Earthshot Prize’s mission is to turn environmental ambition into action at the scale our planet urgently needs.”

The Prize Council includes Prince William; Queen Rania of Jordan; Cate Blanchett; Indra Nooyi; José Andrés; Christiana Figueres; Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim; Wanjira Mathai; Nemonte Nenquimo; Gisele Bündchen; Luisa Neubauer; Naoko Yamazaki; Ernest Gibson; and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.